D. D. Palmer performs the first chiropractic adjustment on Harvey Lillard
- When
- 1895
- Where
- Davenport, Iowa
- Episodes
- 1
Daniel David Palmer, a Canadian-born spiritualist, performed a spinal manipulation on Harvey Lillard in Davenport, Iowa, in 1895. Lillard, a building janitor, claimed his hearing improved after the procedure, an event cited as the founding moment of chiropractic.
Episodes
Background and detail
Background. Daniel David Palmer, born in Canada in 1845, emigrated to the United States in 1865. By 1895, he was practicing magnetic healing in Davenport, Iowa. He was known as a spiritualist and activist, later credited with creating chiropractic.
The Encounter. In 1895, Palmer encountered Harvey Lillard, a janitor working in the building where Palmer's office was located. Lillard had suffered partial deafness following an injury. Palmer manipulated Lillard's back, claiming to have successfully restored his hearing. This interaction is historically significant as the foundational claim for chiropractic treatment.
Historical Claims. Palmer claimed to have received chiropractic principles from "the other world," specifically from a deceased doctor. His early philosophy was based on deduction from irrefutable doctrine, which helped distinguish chiropractic from medicine. However, Lillard's daughter later disputed the account of the first adjustment, recalling a different interaction between her father and Palmer.
People involved
- Daniel David Palmer · Practitioner
- Harvey Lillard · Patient
Sources
- Daniel David Palmer Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-31
- Chiropractic Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-02
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.